Interesting Facts – One of the bloodiest battles in recorded history. Marked the debut of the tank on the battlefield. Among German troops on the defensive front was a young Corporal…Adolf Hitler

With Germany penetrating deep behind Allied lines and the Battle of Verdun well under way, it became apparent that the Allied forces needed to mount an attack on the Germans. By doing so, they would allow themselves the chance to recover lost ground, as well as potentially draw German reinforcements away from their offensive in Verdun. The Somme was a critical region for both sides, representing the German defensive front and lost ground that needed to be regained for the Allies. Retaking it would be no easy task, however. The German forces had long held control of the area, and had steadily been strengthening defensive armaments in the region. To complicate matters, the offensive would require an uphill assault through muddy, barbwire ridden trenches while the German defensive positions enjoyed a clear view from above.

VIDEO: BATTLE OF SOMME

Following several days of Allied artillery bombardment, Allied forces mounted their assault. The first day saw massive casualties for the allies, with nearly 60,000 men wounded or killed. The German defensive positions were clearly too strong to attack head on, and yet the assault continued. In the following weeks the Allied forces suffered unimaginable casualties while German forces remained relatively unscathed in comparison. Faced with the indisputable truth that if they pulled out here the devastation would only be worse in Verdun, the Allied command chose to continue the assault. It was not until the tank made its debut on the battlefield that Allied forces began to gain considerable ground. Initially catching unsuspecting German forces off guard, the tank rolled right over the barbwire and mud holes that had slowed ground troops, allowing the Allies to push into the German lines. The tanks were fraught with mechanical problems and were still prone to artillery fire, however, and were not enough to finish the job. Although the Allied forces failed to break the German defensive lines, they succeeded in pushing the German army back and out of the Somme region, as well as in taking some pressure off the forces in Verdun. Having sustained casualties of over 650,000, the German army never fully recovered from the assault.

The Battle of the Somme was a World War I battle fought from July 1 until November 18, 1916. It was one of the most bitterly contested and costly battles of the Great War, with the British suffering 58,000 casualties on the first day. The Battle of the Somme started with a main Allied attack on the Western Front in an attempt to break through the German lines at the Somme River in northern France and put an end to 18 months of trench stalemate. Young Adolf Hitler fought in the battle and was wounded.

This is what happened to a French town

By late December 1915, it had been decided that the following year simultaneous offensives would take place; the Russians attacking in the East, the Italians in the Alps, and the English and French on the Western Front. Also in December 1915, General Sir Douglas Haig replaced General Sir John French as Commander-In-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force. Plans for the joint offensive on the Somme had not begun to take shape until the Germans launched the Battle of Verdun in February 1916. With the French committed themselves in the defense of Verdun, the burden of the Somme offensive shifted to the British Expeditionary Force.

The assault on the German lines had been preceded by an eight-day preliminary artillery bombarment with the purpose of destroying all forward German defences. Seventeen mines had also been planted in tunnels beneath the German front line trenches. Then the attack was launched upon a 30 kilometer front, north and south of the Somme River between Arras and Albert. Commanded by Sir Henry Rawlinson, 13 British divisions from the Fourth Army struck north of the Somme River, and 11 divisions of the French Sixth Army south of the river.

The German trenches were heavily fortified and the British cannons were not accurate enough as some of their shells failed to explode. When the artillery bombing began, the German soldiers simply moved underground and waited. At 7.30 am, on July 1, 1916, whistles blew to signal the start of the attack. After the heavy bombarment, the Germans simply left their bunkers and took their positions in the trenches.

Empty shell casings and ammunition boxes representing a small sample of the ammunition used by the British Army in the bombardment of Fricourt, France, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916

Burdened by 50-pounds of equipment, the 11 British divisions soldiers walked towards the German lines across no man’s land, stumbling on and surmounting barbed wire obstacles as they went. An officer blew his whistle again and their walk broke into a trot, then into a race as they approached the first German trench line, bristling with lethal bayonets, yelling, charging into the voracious maw of death. The machine guns opened fire, mowing down the first wave of British valient soldiers, then the next. Finally, the third wave managed to get to the first line as machine gun nests were blown away with hand grenades. Jumping into the trenches, a ferocious and desperate close combat fighting with bayonets, knifes, and lineman shovels ensued; hearts were stabbed, bellies ripped opened, necks hacked.

It was a baptism of fire for many in the British volunteer armies as they suffered catastrophic losses. Whole units were wiped out. The first two weeks of the battle had degenerated into a series of disjointed, small-scale actions, ostensibly in preparation for making a major push. From 3 to July 13, Rawlinson’s Fourth Army carried out 46 actions which resulted in 35,000 casualties, but no significant advance. In the south, the French 6th Army had progressed as far as 10 km at different points as it had occupied the entire Flaucourt plateau. The French advance was significantly more successful, for they had more guns and faced weaker defences, but were unable to exploit their gains without British backup and had to fall back to earlier positions.

Although by July 14 the British took several German positions, they could not follow through. On July 19, after a break in the attack, the German defence was reorganized, with the southern wing forming a new army, First Army, under Max von Gallwitz, who took complete responsability for the defence. Seven German divisions were used to reinforce the lines at Somme. However, convinced that the enemy was on the verge of exhaustion and that a breakthrough in the German lines was imminent, Sir Douglas Haig maintained the offensive throughout the summer and into November. The British achieved few victories such as Poziere and Mouquet Farm with the help of Australian and Canadian units.

On September 15, the British attack was renewed in the north-east with the Battle of Flers-Courcelette fought by Rawlinson’s Fourth Army. On this assault, tanks were used for the first time in the war. Although they attained a large measure of shocked surprise when they rolled on the German oppositions, these early tanks proved unwieldy and highly unreliable. The British troops were to break through the remaining enemy trench system while the French Sixth Army would attempt to clear the enemy from the British right flank.

A destroyed British tank. Britain used tanks in the battle of Somme for the first time but of no avail

Meanwhile the Canadians were northwest of the Albert-Bapaume road and outpaced their seven tanks to capture Courcelette. Immediately south of them, the 15th Scottish Division, helped by a single tank, captured Martinpuich. To the southeast, however, German forces on high ground halted a number of tanks, pounding them with artillery and machine gun fire. Others found themselves lost, while yet others fired on their own infantry. British advances were small but were consolidated on as other attacks were launched by the British at the Battles of Transloy Ridges from 1 to October 20.

Despite the progressive British advance, bad weather conditions and stubborn German resistance brought the Battle of the Somme to an end on November 18, 1916. During the Somme offensive, the British and the French had gained only 12 kilometers. The German lines had not been breached and the Allies were still in French territory. The battle resulted in 1,070,000 casualties on both belligerent sides. The Somme offensive served only to relieve the French at Verdun.

Battle of the Somme: summary

Belligerents. United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada against Germany.

Location. Somme, Picardy, France.

Date. July 1 to November 18, 1916.

Result. Indecisive.

Strength. Allies: at the beginning 13 British divisions plus 11 French divisions; at the end 50 British divisions plus 48 French divisions. Germany: 50 divisions.

Allied Commanders. British Douglas Haig, French General Ferdinand Foch.

The following images are not merely of the Nazi brutality in the concentration camps, but the series of articles cover the excessive besti...

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Quotes about war....

"War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man."--Napoleon Hill

"We have failed to grasp the fact that mankind is becoming a single unit, and that for a unit to fight against itself is suicide."--Havelock Ellis

'Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."--Mao Tse-Tung (1893 - 1976)

"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in."--George McGovern

"The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic."--Joseph Stalin

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. --Voltaire, War

In war, truth is the first casualty. -- Aeschylus

"The ability and inclination to use physical strength is no indication of bravery or tenacity to life. The greatest cowards are often the greatest bullies. Nothing is cheaper and more common than physical bravery." --Clarence Darrow,Resist Not Evil

"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth."--Adolf Hitler

"To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization."--George Orwell

"Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country."--Bertrand Russell

Men are at war with each other because each man is at war with himself. --Francis Meehan

Snippets From History

German Soldiers in Russia: Part 1

Hubert Menzel was a major in the General Operations Department of the OKH (the Oberkommando des Heers, the German Army headquarters), and for him the idea of invading the Soviet Union in 1941 had the smack of cold, clear logic to it: 'We knew that in two years' time, that is by the end of 1942, beginning of 1943, the English would be ready, the Americans would be ready, the Russians would be ready too, and then we would have to deal with all three of them at the same time.... We had to try to remove the greatest threat from the East.... At the time it seemed possible.'

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Battle for Berlin, 1945

'We started to fire at the masses,' says one former German machine gunner. 'They weren't human beings for us. It was a wall of attacking beasts who were trying to kill us. You yourself were no longer human.'

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Berlin after it fell to the Russians, 1945

"Vladlen Anchishkin, a Soviet battery commander on the 1st Ukrainian Front, sums up the horror of the whole event, when he tells how he took personal revenge on German soldiers: 'I can admit it now, I was in such a state, I was in such a frenzy. I said, 'Bring them here for an interrogation' and I had a knife, and I cut him. I cut a lot of them. I thought, 'You wanted to kill me, now it's your turn.'Read More

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Dramatic Pictures: Battle For Stalingrad

"...Effective command no longer possible... further defense senseless. Collapse inevitable. Army requests immediate permission to surrender in order to save lives of remaining troops."General Paulus' radio message to Hitler on January 24, 1943

"...Capitulation is impossible. The 6th Army will do its historic duty at Stalingrad until the last man, the last bullet..."

Hitler's response to General Friedrich Paulus' request to withdraw from the city

Points To Ponder....

The fall of France was shocking. It reduced France to virtually a non-player in the Second World War. The efforts of Charles de Gualle were more symbolic than material. But the martial instincts of the French must never be doubted. Under Napoleon they were a formidable military power. The French definitely have more iron in their blood then say, the Italians [I do not mean it in a derogatory sense. War never makes sense]

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Bias Of Western Historians

Soviet resistance made possible a successful Allied invasion of France, and ensured the final Allied victory over Germany.

It can hardly be called mere 'resistance'! If it hadn't been for the Russians, Hitler would have made mincemeat of British forces in Africa and landed on British shores in no time. Hitler attacked Russia first because it had more land and resources than Britain. It is as simple as that.

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SOME WW2 FACTS..........In 1941, the military of the United States was smaller than the Romanian military...........When Germany invaded Russia in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa, they invaded across a 1,500 mile (2,400km) front. This is longer than the entire US Eastern Seaboard..........The United States is estimated to have fed no less than 6 million Soviet citizens continually during WW2. In addition to this, the US military fed up to 11 million American military personnel during the war along with additional citizens of Hawaii and the Philippines..........In 1941 , the German military lost more soldiers to frostbite than they did the Soviet Army..........There was one incident of chemical warfare being used during WW2. The US military had brought canisters of Mustard Gas into the Italian port of Bari “Just in case” of chemical warfare against Germany. The German Luftwaffe bombed these ships, letting loose the chemical cargo stores. A total of 27 cargo ships were lost and over 2,000 military & civilian casualties resulted. It is unknown just how many people died from the release of chemicals versus how many died from explosions..........More V2 rockets fell on Belgium than on Britain..........The German military was able to establish a secret base of operation on the coast of Labrador, Canada. The Germans hid the weather station so well that it was only discovered in the 1970s – 30 years after the war..........The German military employed over 3 MILLION pack animals, most of which were horses during their invasion of the USSR...........The United States employed a ‘Special Weapons Unit’ during WW2 that was entirely made up of foreign weapons. They had to be very careful when in use as most American soldiers knew what the enemy weapons sounded like and would often target the friendly unit...........During WW2, there were TWO carriers stationed on the great lakes near Michigan. They were used exclusively to train naval pilots on how to land on moving carriers. These carriers were hidden in such secrecy that most people did not know their existence till after the war was over..........Source: KnowlwedgeGlue